Part 31 (1/2)
”If I dared give you some advice----”
”Speak; but no more of the formal mode of address between us, my dear Dufresne. Let us banish ceremony.”
”With all my heart.”
”You were saying----”
”If you take my advice, you will send your wife into the country, in order to be more free.”
”Parbleu! that is an excellent idea of yours! In truth, she talks to me every day about the fields and meadows and green gra.s.s. I will send her to pasture, and I will remain in Paris.”
”But you don't mention your game of cards with Chevalier Desfleurets; did you recoup your losses?”
”No; on the contrary, I played in the most extraordinary luck; I lost continually.--By the way, that reminds me that I owe him three thousand francs, and that I promised to give them to him this morning.”
”Gambling debts are sacred; you must pay up.”
”That is what I propose to do. I made an appointment with him at the Palais-Royal, at number 9; does he live there?”
”Ha! ha! ha! how ignorant you are, my dear Murville! Don't you know that number nine is an _academy_, a roulette establishment?”
”What! the chevalier frequents a roulette establishment?”
”Why not? You will see the most fas.h.i.+onable people there; many n.o.bles who try their hardest to win the money of plebeians, and worthy bourgeois, who are delighted to play with a chevalier or a viscount; but always the utmost decency and good-breeding; no disturbance! I a.s.sure you that more than one society gambler might take lessons in deportment at the academy; people lose their money there without whining; they swear only under their breath; in short, everything there is most agreeable.”
”Parbleu! I am curious to see the place; but I thought that a business man ought not to show himself in such places; I have been told that it was very injurious to the reputation.”
”You have been misinformed; and the proof is that you will see many merchants, business agents, brokers, commission merchants there; it is a very respectable a.s.semblage; the rendezvous of soldiers, foreigners, and great n.o.blemen travelling incognito; and the police see to it that none of the riffraff gets in; they leave number 113 to the workmen, the apprentices, and the petty tradesmen, because those good people must enjoy themselves also; but number 9 is almost as respectable as Frascati's.”
”According to that, I may go there without fear.”
”You cannot fail to find Desfleurets there; he is there from the time it opens till the dinner hour, and indeed he does not always go out for dinner. He sits at the green table, p.r.i.c.king cards. For ten years he has been seeking a _martingale_ certain to make his fortune; and he declares that he will have it before long, and then he will tell it to all his acquaintances. If one could find that, on my word, it would be delightful; one would no longer need to worry about anything; we would enjoy ourselves and lead the gayest lives imaginable.”
”Do you think that it is possible?”
”Why, certainly! More extraordinary things have been seen; examples are plentiful. Look you, between ourselves, I know more than twenty people, who hold an excellent position in society, who spend a great deal of money, follow the fas.h.i.+ons, deny themselves nothing, and who live solely by gambling; listen to a favorite author:
”'Tis play brings many lives of ease-- As hosts of cabbies, chairmen; add to these The lombard keen, with faded gems supplied Which every day sees on new fingers tried, And Gascons loud who sup at game-house board, Unribboned knights, and misses all ignored Who, save for lansquenet and gains quite sly, Their virtue weak would market far from high!”
”You surprise me; I would not have believed it, for it is always a matter of chance.”
”Oh! my dear fellow, there is no such thing as chance for the man who chooses to reason coolly, to reckon the chances, the series of numbers and the probabilities. However, what I am saying is not meant to induce you to play; you are not lucky, and you had much better hold on to something solid.”
”By the way, what about business?”
”Absolute stagnation; we must wait.”
”All right. Ah! my dear Dufresne, if you should find a reliable martingale, what sport we would have while my wife is in the country!”
”Nonsense! take my advice and think no more about that! It is mere folly, a delusion.--I must leave you.”